434 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



Either my two companions did not like the place or took a 

 less successful line after it, for I dropped them and rode alone 

 up to the river at Shelly, where we. that is to say, the only 

 companions I then had, F. Barker, Mr. Page, Wood and 

 Shave, took the deer. They admitted having been all out of 

 the run along the roads, and made a lucky nick at the finish, 

 cutting off more than a mile, and bringing up the former just 

 in time to save and capture cleverly our gallant hind. Alto- 

 gether it was a brilliant and very severe run, very trying to 

 horses from heavy ground, sticky through the light frost, 

 greasy banks, and warm sunshine. Some of our best men and 

 horses, e.g., Wm. Tufnell, George Sullins, Ridley, Poole, 

 Reeve and others were entirely out of it, and saw nothing of 

 the quick part of the run. 



(After a very severe day with the Essex Union from Galley 

 Wood Common, on January 21st, i860, in which Mr. Vickerman 

 nearly killed his horse, and would have done so had not F. 

 Barker got hold of a blacksmith to bleed him on the spot, Mr. 

 Vickerman writes) : — The day was more severe than I sup- 

 posed at the time, for I found myself stiffer and more fagged 

 than after the hardest day this season with the stag. It proves 

 what I frequently affirm, that with the right class of horse in 

 the right condition, and rightly ridden and handled, stag-hunting 

 is less trying than foxhunting, for though the runs with the 

 former are much longer and more trying while they last, the 

 horse gets to his work at once, and when the run is over his 

 work is done, and he has nothing more to do than travel 

 leisurely homewards, mostly in company with hounds and other 

 horses ; and a horse knows, feels and appreciates this even 

 more keenly than his master, in the proportion indeed that his 

 share of the work bears to that of his rider. 



But with a pack of foxhounds bent on showing sport you 

 have no sooner done with one fox than you are trying for 

 another, your horse in the meantime having time to get chilled 

 and fagged and lose his elasticity of spirit — and this again is why 

 a second horse is a real luxury with foxhounds, coming in as it 

 does for the second fox, while it is comparatively useless with 

 stao;-hounds, not beino- wanted in an indifferent run, and never 

 being at hand at the right moment in a good one. Its only 

 use in a good run is when the owner is a heavy-weight and his 

 " second horseman " a feather-weight and judicious withal — a 

 veritable ra7^a avis. 



January 31st, i860. Boynton Hall. A cold, clear, fine day, 

 made for hunting — land soaking wet from heavy rains all 



